Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

OB Manifesto

Last Saturday the sun was shining on the 5100 block of Cape May Avenue in Ocean Beach, and Red House at 5113 was in full flower. At the side yard gate, casually dressed visitors (mostly young) were shelling out a buck each to benefit the OB CRABs (an antinuclear group which would Cancel Radioactive Bullshit). Bread and Roses, San Diego’s veteran musical protesters, were performing. “Solar,” one of the dogs that lives at the house, was sniffing at the broccoli quiches, and folks were signing petitions imploring the governments of Russia and Norway to save the whales. Yet, not a few others were wondering if they weren’t witnessing the end of an era.

Members of the colIective that now occupies Red House say that era began in early 1973, when several of Ocean Beach's leftist activists moved into the blood-red building. With them, they brought a constellation of interests which soon transformed the four-bedroom house into a community Center. Red House hosted some of the first meetings of the Ocean Beach Community Planning Group, which later Spawned the Ocean Beach Planning Board. It served as a meeting place for Coastal Act organizers and rent control advocates and free school supporters. ("With benefits here, we raised more than $5000 to help run the Free School in the last three years, " says Jeannie, one of the house residents.) It housed classes in everything from tie-dyeing to wood-working. The issues of the short-Iived OB Scene originated at Red House, and . some of the now defunct OB Rag's creators lived there from time to time. Among Red House's tenants have been activists like Tom Kozden and George Katsiaficas and Peter Bohmer, and when they moved out, others, four to ten strong, replaced them.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The collective structure with which they lived varied over the years, according to Jeannie. "Sometimes children have been considered free renters, with the parents paying a half share of food and utilities for them. "Other times, the residents figured their rent shares in proportion to their room sizes or income. Jeannie says the rent stayed low — first $275 and now $325 a month — because the tenants collectively supplied Red House with as many repair jabs as political posters. Today the posters lend the kind of consistency to the home that family portraits give to more bourgeois domiciles; while fresh demands like "No Nukes" have claimed the living room walIs, the older statements about Vietnam and Che Guevara and Guinea-Bissau Independence persevere in Red House's remoter regions.

With such a history, then, the Red House residents were ready when they got word a few months ago that a new owner, Philip Jordan, planned to tear down the house and build a fourplex on the property. They organized a petition drive and collected more than 500 signatures, they convinced the planning board to vote against any condemnation, and the coastal commission subsequently refused to permit it. citing the need to preserve low-income housing near the beaches. But when Jordan's attorney. Wolfgang Hahn, returned with a second plan to build only a duplex on the twenty-five-by hundred-and- forty-foot piece of land which adjoins the house, comparable opposition failed to materialize. and the coast commission approved that project last Friday.

Dismayed over the imminent loss of the "recreation space," house residents were planning to meet Monday night to decide whether an appeal to the state coast commission stood any chance of success (unlikely, since the local commission didn't even consider the matter questionable enough to warrant a full hearing). The residents also are worrying now that the duplex construction may yet threaten the existing building, since part of the old structure spills onto the lot approved for the duplex. In any event, they're questioning how the activism"associated with the house can survive on the severely reduced space. "It's going to end it," predicted one resident dourly.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

The vicious cycle of Escondido's abandoned buildings

City staff blames owners for raising rents

Last Saturday the sun was shining on the 5100 block of Cape May Avenue in Ocean Beach, and Red House at 5113 was in full flower. At the side yard gate, casually dressed visitors (mostly young) were shelling out a buck each to benefit the OB CRABs (an antinuclear group which would Cancel Radioactive Bullshit). Bread and Roses, San Diego’s veteran musical protesters, were performing. “Solar,” one of the dogs that lives at the house, was sniffing at the broccoli quiches, and folks were signing petitions imploring the governments of Russia and Norway to save the whales. Yet, not a few others were wondering if they weren’t witnessing the end of an era.

Members of the colIective that now occupies Red House say that era began in early 1973, when several of Ocean Beach's leftist activists moved into the blood-red building. With them, they brought a constellation of interests which soon transformed the four-bedroom house into a community Center. Red House hosted some of the first meetings of the Ocean Beach Community Planning Group, which later Spawned the Ocean Beach Planning Board. It served as a meeting place for Coastal Act organizers and rent control advocates and free school supporters. ("With benefits here, we raised more than $5000 to help run the Free School in the last three years, " says Jeannie, one of the house residents.) It housed classes in everything from tie-dyeing to wood-working. The issues of the short-Iived OB Scene originated at Red House, and . some of the now defunct OB Rag's creators lived there from time to time. Among Red House's tenants have been activists like Tom Kozden and George Katsiaficas and Peter Bohmer, and when they moved out, others, four to ten strong, replaced them.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The collective structure with which they lived varied over the years, according to Jeannie. "Sometimes children have been considered free renters, with the parents paying a half share of food and utilities for them. "Other times, the residents figured their rent shares in proportion to their room sizes or income. Jeannie says the rent stayed low — first $275 and now $325 a month — because the tenants collectively supplied Red House with as many repair jabs as political posters. Today the posters lend the kind of consistency to the home that family portraits give to more bourgeois domiciles; while fresh demands like "No Nukes" have claimed the living room walIs, the older statements about Vietnam and Che Guevara and Guinea-Bissau Independence persevere in Red House's remoter regions.

With such a history, then, the Red House residents were ready when they got word a few months ago that a new owner, Philip Jordan, planned to tear down the house and build a fourplex on the property. They organized a petition drive and collected more than 500 signatures, they convinced the planning board to vote against any condemnation, and the coastal commission subsequently refused to permit it. citing the need to preserve low-income housing near the beaches. But when Jordan's attorney. Wolfgang Hahn, returned with a second plan to build only a duplex on the twenty-five-by hundred-and- forty-foot piece of land which adjoins the house, comparable opposition failed to materialize. and the coast commission approved that project last Friday.

Dismayed over the imminent loss of the "recreation space," house residents were planning to meet Monday night to decide whether an appeal to the state coast commission stood any chance of success (unlikely, since the local commission didn't even consider the matter questionable enough to warrant a full hearing). The residents also are worrying now that the duplex construction may yet threaten the existing building, since part of the old structure spills onto the lot approved for the duplex. In any event, they're questioning how the activism"associated with the house can survive on the severely reduced space. "It's going to end it," predicted one resident dourly.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Two poems by Marvin Bell

“To Dorothy” and “The Self and the Mulberry”
Next Article

The Fellini of Clairemont High

When gang showers were standard for gym class
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader